Supreme Federal Court

Supreme Federal Court
Supremo Tribunal Federal

The Supreme Federal Court building at the Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Plaza)
Established 1829
Country Brazil
Location Brasília
Composition method Presidential nomination with Senate confirmation
Authorized by Constitution of Brazil
No. of positions 11
Website Official website
President
Currently Cármen Lúcia
Since September 12, 2016
Brazil
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Brazil
Foreign relations

The Supreme Federal Court (Portuguese: Supremo Tribunal Federal, [suˈpɾẽmu tɾibuˈnaw fedeˈɾaw], abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for constitutional issues and its rulings cannot be appealed. On questions involving exclusively non-constitutional issues, regarding federal laws, the highest court is, by rule, the Superior Court of Justice.

Alongside its appeal competence, mostly by the Extraordinary Appeal (Recurso Extraordinário), the Court has a small range of cases of original jurisdiction, including the power of judicial review, judging the constitutionality of laws passed by the National Congress, through a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade, or ADI). There are also other mechanisms for reaching the Court directly, such as the Declaratory Action of Constitutionality (Ação Declaratória de Constitucionalidade, or ADC) and the Direct Action of Unconstitutionality by Omission (Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade por Omissão or ADO).

The eleven judges of the court are called Ministers (Ministro), although having no similarity with the government body of ministers. They are appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. There is a mandatory retirement age of 75.

All judicial and administrative meetings of the Supreme Court have been broadcast live on television since 2002. The Court is open for the public to watch the meetings.

In May 2009 The Economist called the Supreme Federal Court "the most overburdened court in the world, thanks to a plethora of rights and privileges entrenched in the country's 1988 constitution (...) till recently the tribunal's decisions did not bind lower courts. The result was a court that is overstretched to the point of mutiny. The Supreme Court received 100,781 cases last year."[1]

History

The court was inaugurated during the colonial era in 1808, the year that the royal family of Portugal (the House of Braganza) arrived in Rio de Janeiro. It was originally called the House of Appeals of Brazil (Casa de Suplicação do Brasil).

The proclamation of the Brazilian Declaration of Independence and the adoption of the Imperial Constitution in 1824 preceded the establishment of the Supreme Court of Justice (Supremo Tribunal de Justiça) in 1829. With the first Constitution of the Republic, the current Court was established.

Although the constitutional norms that regulated the creation of the Court allowed Deodoro da Fonseca, Brazil's first president, to nominate an entirely new Court, the president chose to nominate as the first members of the Supreme Federal Court the ministers who were then serving as members of the predecessor imperial Court.

Two hundred members have served on the Court. The Constitution of 1891 decided that the Court would have 15 members. When Getúlio Vargas came into power, the number of members was reduced to 11. The number was changed to 16 in 1965, but returned to 11 in 1969 and has not changed since. Of all Presidents of Brazil, only one (Café Filho) never nominated a minister.

The Justice, by Alfredo Ceschiatti in front of the Supreme Federal Court

President of the Court

The President and Vice-president of the Court are elected by their peers for a term of two years by secret ballot. The currently serving President is Carmen Lúcia.

Re-election for a consecutive term is not allowed. By tradition, the members of the Court always elect as president the most senior minister of the Court that has not yet served as President, to avoid politicization of the Court. Therefore, it is known beforehand that the next Presidents of the Court, after Carmen Lúcia, will be, in order, Dias Toffoli and Luiz Fux.

If all members currently sitting on the Court have already served as president, the rotation starts all over again; however, due to the existence of a compulsory retirement age, and the consequent appointment of new ministers to fill those vacancies, it is very rare for the cycle to be completed and restarted, and some ministers are forced to retire before their turn in the presidency arrives, as was expected to happen with Teori Zavascki.

According to the same convention, the Court selects as vice-president for a certain term the minister who, according to that tradition, will be selected president in the succeeding term. Also by tradition, the elections of the president and vice-president are never unanimous, there being always one isolated minority vote in each election, as the ministers who are to be elected never cast their votes for themselves; such votes are cast either for the Dean of the Court – its most senior member – or for some other elder minister that the one to be elected admires and wants to pay homage to.

The Chief Justice is also the 4th in the Presidential Succession Line, when the President of Brazil becomes prevented to be in charge, being preceded by the Vice-President, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, and the President of the Federal Senate, as provided in Article 80 of the Brazilian Constitution.[2]

Current members

     Former president of the Court.        President of the Court.        Vice-president of the Court.
Order of
antiquity		 Minister[M] Born (date e state) Appointed by Age in inauguration Initial date
(inauguration)		 Limit date
(retirement)		 Main previous functions
1

José Celso de Mello Filho

 1 November 1945 in

São Paulo

 José Sarney 43 17 August 1989 2020 District attorney and prosecutor of Justice of Public Prosecutor's Office of the state of São Paulo (1970–1989)
2

Marco Aurélio Mendes de Farias Mello

 12 June 1946 in

Rio de Janeiro

 Fernando Collor de Mello 43 13 June 1990 2021 Labor prosecutor (1975–1978), judge of Regional Labor Court (TRT) - 1st Region (1978–1981), minister of the TST (1981–1990)
3

Gilmar Ferreira Mendes

 30 December 1955 in

Mato Grosso

 Fernando Henrique Cardoso 46 20 June 2002 2030 Prosecutor of the Republic (1985–1988), deputy chief for Legal Issues of the Chief of Staff (1996–2000), Attorney General of the Union (2000–2002)
4

Enrique Ricardo Lewandowski

 11 May 1948 in

Rio de Janeiro

 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 57 16 May 2006 2023 Lawyer (1974–1990), judge from Criminal Arres Court of São Paulo (1990–1997), desembargador of Justice Court of the State of São Paulo (1997–2006), professor of State law in Law School, University of São Paulo (USP) (2003–2006)
5

Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha

 19 April 1954 in

Minas Gerais

 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 52 21 June 2006 2029 Prosecutor of the state of Minas Gerais (1983–2006)
6

José Antonio Dias Toffoli

 15 November 1967 in

São Paulo

 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 41 23 October 2009 2042 Lawyer (1991–2009), deputy chief for Legal Issues of the Chief of Staff (2003–2005), Attorney General of the Union (2007–2009)
7

Luiz Fux

 26 April 1953 in

Rio de Janeiro

 Dilma Rousseff 57 3 March 2011 2028 Prosecutor of Public Prosecutor's Office of Rio de Janeiro (1979–1982), judge of the state of Rio de Janeiro (1983–1997), desembargador of the Justice Court of the state of Rio de Janeiro (1997–2001), minister of STJ (2001–2011)
8

Rosa Maria Weber Candiota da Rosa

 2 October 1948 in

Rio Grande do Sul

 Dilma Rousseff 63 19 December 2011 2023 Labor judge (1976–1991), judge of Regional Labor Court (TRT) - 4th Region (1991–2006), minister of TST (2006–2011)
9

Luís Roberto Barroso

 11 March 1958 in

Rio de Janeiro

 Dilma Rousseff 55 26 June 2013 2033 Lawyer (1981–2013), prosecutor of the state of Rio de Janeiro (1985–2013)
10

Luiz Edson Fachin

 8 February 1958 in

Rio Grande do Sul

 Dilma Rousseff 57 16 June 2015 2033 Lawyer (1980–2015), prosecutor of the state of Paraná (1990–2006)
11

Alexandre de Moraes

 13 December 1968 in

São Paulo

 Michel Temer 48 22 March 2017 2043 Prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the state of São Paulo (1991–2002), lawyer of public law (2010–2014), minister of Justice and Public Security (2016–2017)

[3]

Notes

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Brazil's supreme court: When less is more". The Economist. May 21, 2009.
  2. ↑ Brazilian Constitution (in Portuguese)
  3. ↑ "Composição Atual" (in Portuguese). Supremo Tribunal Federal. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  4. ↑ "Pastas dos ministros" (in Portuguese). Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF). Retrieved 21 March 2017.

Coordinates: 15°48′11″S 47°51′40″W / 15.803°S 47.861°W / -15.803; -47.861

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.